Simply put, the state of Ohio has just been good to me. Since being introduced to the state by Jeff Holchin, there is no where I dream of more during the long summer months. This year was no different, and after several trips up the hill to better figure out the public area we are beginning to understand, I felt like it was going to be an awesome November. I wasn't disappointed.
Any public land bowhunter knows they ought to have backup plans, good public land hunters know they need backups for their backups, and some dummies like myself that just think too much have backups that backup their backup's backup. This trip, that overkill came in handy. The first day, Ethan and I slipped silently into an area that we had scouted extensively. We had found an isolated bedding area way back in some public land, and the perimeters revealed some massive buck sign..and a lot of it. I think the latter is really what did the place in. As we pulled in that morning we noticed that there were truck tracks all in the little pull off area, (hadn't been any there all fall) and as we were situating our stuff a jacked up, straight piped, 16 year old at Walmart parking lot kind of truck also tried to pull in. The West Virginia plates revealed they had the same intentions we did, and he honked the horn and waved (not sure how many fingers were up) as he apparently thought better of another spot.
I should have known right then what we were in for.
:coffee:
:campfire: :campfire:
More in a bit, I've got papers to grade and the wife keeps looking at me like "you're wasting our day off."
no pics = didn't happen..
:coffee: This should be good, Dalton never disappoints in his harvests or his story telling.
Been waiting on this one but I will say well done Dalton!! :coffee:
Oooooooooo, I'm ready for a good tail :jumper:
:coffee: :campfire:
Give all the papers A's and continue on my friend. :campfire:
:campfire:
🙏
oh pleeeese hurry with those papers :pray:
So we spent that whole day in that location, despite the apparent pressure. We didnt see any people, however it was pretty clear they had been there. I was set up on a funnel coming out of the previously mentioned thicket, the road bed coming out of it had been littered in scrapes just days before. Three days previous the scrapes all had fresh tracks and even smelled of buck. As it got daylight my confidence faded as I saw that the scrapes were leaf-filled and obviously not what they were. As the day wore on it was clear my feelings were on point. I saw two small bucks, and that was it. I did feel a little better when they both ended up directly under me, I was in the correct tree, just at the wrong time. Ethan had a similar first day as he spotted a two year old 8 point and a couple small bucks as well.
When we met at the base of my tree we both had the same thought in mind-it's time to move on.
After a long day in a tree, the restaurant tasted amazing, although I'm quite certain it was average at best. The table was filled with laughter, big dreams, and truths that stretched with our pants as we packed out bellies with much needed hot food. Tomorrow was a new day, and the optimism was apparent.
The next morning was nasty. Mid thirties and a constant, drenching rain. We started to try it, but the downpour as we opened the truck door made us think other wise. I had several backup plans, but my dad and Aaron's dad, Brad, were already occupying two of them. Aaron was also in a spot that was a potential backup, so when the thought crossed my mind to just punt and gather intel for the rest of the week I quickly settled on that as the plan of action.
Aaron and I waited on daylight to start our search, Ethan, sick as a dog, decided he would be better off staying warm and dry and not letting his Laryngitis turn into pneumonia. I didn't blame him, he sounded horrible.
The Onx app really came in handy this trip. Sitting in the truck, aaron and I circled some spots that we'd been cyber scouting. Focusing on leeward benches and saddles, we took off. And it wasn't long before we knew we were in good shape. There must have been 40 fresh scrapes up the roadbed we were walking. Leg-sized rubs erased any doubt what could be checking them. After getting to a circled spot, we crouched and watch a borderline shooter buck as he cruised by, completely clueless to the danger that was sweating and panting nearby from the muddy hill that had just been climbed.
As we approached the top of a leeward hill it was clear we had found a honey-hole. Three ditches topped out and along that top out it was thick. The thick strip was littered in rubs and kicked up leaves. Like a drug addict I swear I was twitching and tweaking out at the find, this was a dang good place to sit.
:campfire:
Iv got a fresh cup :coffee:
:archer:
So with renewed confidence and and dry clothes I headed back into that spot for the evening sit. The rain had stopped and it felt like it was going to be a great evening. Its probably a good 40-45 minutes back to that particular funnel, with an inch of rain, it was more like an hour sliding and pulling stuck boots out of the muck.
Finally I made it in, as I climbed up the tree in my climber I noticed I had a creeper watching me. A fawn doe was bedded about 40 yards away, as she watched me climb I couldn't help but be happy about the situation, I knew there was a real good chance her mom was being run to death. Hopefully, she would come back to bed near her fawn and bring her pursuer along with her. I by know means would take that as any kind of tip or anything, I was merely being hopeful at the time.
The evening was pretty slow, didn't see a thing except for that fawn and by 5pm I was already game planning for the next morning. I looked down the hill and my attention was quickly snatched by the unmistakable glow of yellow rack, trouncing along perfectly through the bottom of the funnel.
:bigsmyl:
Unfortunately he was about 80 yards below me, and at the rate it was going that was as close as he would get. Having nothing to lose, I flipped over one of those dumb sounding can calls. He locked it up, and after a second or two he was heading straight for me. I'll be honest with you, I was dumbfounded. I had always heard folks say those things can work but skeptical would be an understatement for me. But dadgummit if he wouldn't heading right for me.
At 14 yards my i pointed the camera in front of him and moved it from the camera to my string. With how fast everything happened I got sloppy. As my right hand reached its destination of my string I bumped it just a little too hard, my arrow rattled ever so softly and you can guess what happened next. Yep, he pegged me.
Here he is, rookie mistake I had made.
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Let me try that again.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181116/dd1b6009e3e3e1122f951677574b75ae.jpg)
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he's a handsome lad!!
Good stuff Dalton, keep it up
Oh my goodness!!!
Needless to say, I was pretty bummed. That was the first good buck that I've lost a chance at due to the camera, I bet he probably wont be the last, but it definitely hurt.
I beat myself up the whole way back to the truck, but knew it was still early, and I knew the best hunting should be in front of me.
The next day is when the people really got annoying. I went back to that same funnel the next morning. After seeing several deer all keying on one part of the funnel I made the move over there. I saw several more deer, and several people. I can handle people, It's public land, they have as much right to it as I do but these guys were just obnoxious. Walking in an hour after daylight, walking right under you, literally following you in, you name it. Come to find out it was the same guys we saw last year, they knew we killed some good deer in there last year and were looking for our spots as they were hunting the whole week after we left.
Even so the funnel still worked, right at dark a pretty good buck came through but he never came close and was on a mission.
Against my better judgement I went back to the same funnel the next morning. Even with the people I had saw some good deer movement and I knew what the deer were doing in there.
Right at daybreak, I thought i had made the right move. A deer came bouncing across the ditches below me. I could see his white face and massive rack clearly from around 75 yards away. He never came near me, and was clearly getting away from something. He was easily the biggest deer I've ever seen in the woods. Look in the middle of this picture and you can vaguely make his rack out.
Look directly in the middle of the pic.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181117/5e66f9d41172500c1759f21d1193c160.jpg)
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Shortly after that deer trotted out of my life I heard something else coming, you guessed it, those same guys. They had busted him out of a thicket, a thicket that 3 of us were hunting. As they walked by I decided to be nice and threw my hand up with a nod. The guy looked right at me, shot me a "go to heck" look and turned right, no wave, nod, or anything.
I was fuming, the guy could have at least threw his hand up.
After that debacle I decided that was all I could handle of that crew. I slid down the tree and headed out. Ethan and Aaron had both also been messed up, and were equally as aggravated with our stalkers.
After a couple cheeseburgers at a local gas station, we were back on the hunt.
This was the last evening, and our hopes were all but shot. Ethan decided to go sit back where my dad had hunted the whole time, after all he had seen a shooter multiple times with no shot. Aaron and I decided we would go back in the vicinity of where I shot my buck last year.
Aaron's dad had been hunting the area, and on his way out that morning he had seen several deer including two good bucks on the next ridge over from where he had been hunting. We said what the heck, and gave it a go.
That ridge was tore up. The deer had clearly felt the pressure from Brad and just picked up and moved one ridge over. There were several scrapes and rubs and before long Aaron picked out a great looking bench on the leeward side of the ridge. I gave him a fist-bump and headed on out the hill.
As I went on out there the sign got less and less frequent. It seemed I had walked past all the deer, but I had to in order not to be all over Aaron. Reluctantly I picked a small White Oak and scurried up the tree. Zero confidence would have been an improvement but being perched in the sun, comfortable I was content to just sit and reflect on the fun we had had.
That's when Aaron texted and said he had just let a basket 8 go, and that Ethan was watching two 130s run the same doe. I perked up and told Aaron I was going to hit that dumb can call and see if I could get that 8 under me.
I followed the bleat with a couple grunts, then went back to daydreaming. It wasnt two minutes and I heard the unmistakable footsteps of a deer in the crisp November leaves. It also had that monotonous, continuous gate of a cruising buck, at the same time I look up to see a rack coming over the hill, heading directly for me.
He was closing the distance fast and I barely had time to get the camera on, pointed in the right direction and back on the string before he walked into my shooting hole, at a mere 6 steps from the base of my tree.
I hit full draw as I made a noise to stop him, he obliged but had no clue where the noise came from, I never gave him a chance to figure it out. The string dropped on that #42 Omega Native and the lighted nock proved the hit to be nearly perfect. The arrow blew through the heavy buck and he stormed off, I never even had a chance to get nervous.
He made it about 30 yards and stood for a few seconds, as his back-end got heavy he jumped down the hill another 40 yards or so and the awfullest crashing, thrashing, and commotion you've ever heard ensued. The buck was mine.
Screenshot of arrow impact (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181117/abadb645005b796f220ffbdba4cf0a79.jpg)
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That's when the shakes started. After I settled down a bit and gave Aaron and Ethan a bingo text I eased down the tree.
I was surprised (hadn't seen the footage yet) to find some gut material on my arrow, I started second-guessing my shot, but the giant splatters of pink frothy, bubbly blood erased any doubt. The trail was profuse, short, and easy to follow. It didn't take long to find him, and I could literally smell his nasty hocks from 30 yards away.
The buck as I found him.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181117/48cf5217d11066de0dd04da208386e02.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181117/f876416887d417d3188b365c58f56fa6.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181117/85430e1a859bfaaea2060319b714cc01.jpg)
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I snapped some pics once I got him tagged. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181117/2253c6095d57c22f7221e70435238530.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181117/5fd39ab2df435e8443e607c7ac9e4296.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181117/080f63db9ad3e21cc592414e69faedf1.jpg)
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Group shot(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181117/18459b869de355f87e64a73b33f11aac.jpg)
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After doing an exit interview and some follow up B roll it was getting dark. I was one happy bowhunter.
Overall it was a great "Rutcation." We encountered a ton of adversity but ultimately fought through it. There were a lot of lessons learned and we will be better hunters and men because of it. I filmed Ethan the next day to no avail, and Aaron also went down swinging with a tag still in his pocket.
Ohio never disappoints and I am already dreaming of where I'll sit first next November. I hope you enjoyed the tale, and I apologize for being long-winded.
Good luck the rest of this fall!!
:campfire: :campfire:
P.S, the footage turned out great on two different angles, hopefully I can get that put together before long! Keep a check on our YouTube channel, "The Stickboys" to see it.
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Love your stories Dalton!!!
Great Buck, way to stick with it through diversity :thumbsup:
Congrats way to keep at it.
Congrats and well done. Public land hunting can be tough, but the rewards can be great too. It's a Double challenge: outwit the deer AND the other hunters! Your dad and buddies shouldn't give up on the season yet - I have experienced some good second and even third rut action in mid December and late January in Ohio. You often see multiple bucks chasing a hot doe then.
Definitely worth the drive.
That was a very great read! Congrats on a beautiful buck.
well done dalton!!! :thumbsup: no need to apologize for a story very well told :nono:
What a great trip for you guys to enjoy every year. Thanks for the story. Congrats on the nice deer too.
Nice!! Good job and good story!
thanks for sharing your story, and congratts! on a hard earned buck.. :thumbsup:
Congrats....
,,Sam,,
Good story Dalton! Enjoyed it very much and congratulations on a nice buck...Looking forward to the video....
Congrats Dalton! Way to go!
Awesome!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Great story, sounds like a wonderful time, congratulations!!
No way, that was great "longwindage".
Way to hang tough and get it done. Thanks for sharing.
Way to go Dalton, I was in Ohio last week, messy weather and dodging folks. saw some bucks but not the one i was looking for.
Congrats on a great deer! You have a talent for writing and story telling!! Congrats again!